Peanut Butter and Chocolate: Vegan Pillows!

December 16, 2010

It’s time for the chocolate peanut butter parade, taking place in Colleen’s kitchen, during the weekend before Christmas. Come one, come all. It’s a sight to see.

Why the parade? It seems like a third of the people I work with craved this combination. It’s kind of cool, because I rarely make these kinds of things of my own accord.

Request number four is as follows,

“anything chocolate. anything peanut butter. something with both together?” (Right next to the text is a little arrow drawn to it, and in a different handwriting is the word “magical” with a smiley face.)

Oh! Exciting! I finally whipped out my vegan cookie book from Isa, which I’ve been meaning to attack these last few months. These cookies were too much to pass up, being so cute and pillow-like. I have a thing about cookies with surprises in them; they kind of leave me breathless. I’ll admit, these chocolate peanut butter pillows are best warmed up with a glass of cold milk, but they were still good as a pick-me-up snack at work.

Also, I’m adding these cookies to my list of foods that would be perfect to sleep in or on. Could you imagine curling up inside on of these, surround by warm, soft peanut butter? I just got hit with a new fantasy, just making a suit of these cookies, with a hole for my face, and wheels so I could move around… Will stop now. My apologies. Make, and enjoy, these cookies.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment, or use ungreased non-stick baking sheets.

2. To make the chocolate exterior, combine the liquid ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and mix until smooth. Then sift in the dry ingredients, and mix everything together. The dough will be shiny and

moist. Set aside.

The chocolate dough for these cookies reminds me of brownie batter. YUM.

3. In another bowl, beat together all the ingredients, except one of the tablespoon of non-dairy milk, until the dough is moist, but firm. You can use a mixer, but I was able to do it by hand. If your mixture is crumbly, add the extra tablespoon of non-dairy milk.

4. Roll the peanut butter mixture into 24 balls, about a scant tablespoon in size. I put them on a plate to make sure they didn’t get all stuck to each other before putting them in the cookie shell.

5. To form the each cookie, take a generous tablespoon of the chocolate dough, flatten the dough in your hand, making a disk about a half-inch thick. Place a peanut butter ball in the middle of the disk, and roll the chocolate dough around it. Place the ball on the sheet, or flatten it between your palms and then place on the baking sheet (about 2 inches apart).

6. Bake each sheet for 10 minutes, and let the cookies cool on the tray for five minutes after coming out of the oven, before moving them to a rack to cool completely.

These cookies are amazing right out of the oven, but make sure they cool before putting them in a sealed container for storage (like most cookies, really).

Don't tell me you wouldn't like to live inside this chocolate pocket (if you're not allergic to peanuts, that is).